Abdul Ghani Khan, Razaur Rahman, Moin Ansari, Zafar Hayder, Musarrat Hussain.
Pattern of psychiatric emergencies at tertiary care hospital in Karachi.
J Pak Psych Soc Jan ;7(1):37-41.

Objective: To determine patterns of psychiatric emergencies at tertiary care general hospital. Design: Cross-sectional. Place & Duration of study: Emergency and Accident Department of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi for a period of one month. Subjects and Methods: During the period of study 10,000 consecutive patients who attended the Emergency & Accident Department of JPMC were registered. These patients were screened for psychiatric illness, using partially modified Urdu version of Present State Examination (PSE) and final diagnosis was made according to diagnostic criteria of WHO’s International Statistical Classification of Diseases. Results: Out of all registered patients at emergency department, two hundred and thirty two (2.3%) were identified as suffering from psychiatric illness. There were more male as compare to female (1.2:1) and their age ranged from 14-65 (average 28) years. Majority of patients in sample were educated and single. Most of male were employed while females were home maker. Mostly parents were accompanying these patients and one fifth (20.6%) of them were hospitalized. Mood disorder was the most frequent diagnosis (29.3%) followed by neurotic, stress related and somatoform disorders (25%), suicide attempters (15%) and Psychotic disorder (12.9%). Rest of sample was sample was having diagnosis of drug dependence, EPS, organic mental disorders and Mental Retardation etc. Conclusions: Psychiatric illnesses are common in accident & emergency department of tertiary care hospital, particularly among young males. Common illnesses included Mood disorders, Neurotic, stress related and somatoform disorders, schizophrenia and attempted suicide.

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